BCU for Space and Cost Norms
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 UPDATE OF THE BUILDING COST UNIT FOR SPACE AND COST NORMS FOR BUILDINGS AND OTHER LAND IMPROVEMENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS. WORKING DOCUMENTS FOR DHET RECORD PURPOSES TO ENABLE FUTURE UPDATES DATE: 31 JULY 2017 Final 2 INDEX PAGE Index and abbreviations 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1. METHODOLOGY AND CALCULATION OF THE BASE COST UNIT 7 1.1 Background 7 1.2 Methodology 7 1.3 Gauteng rates ( Base dated March 2017) 8 1.4 Elemental analysis of projects 10 University of Mpumalanga offices building 7 West 11 University of Mpumalanga offices building 7 East 12 Wits Maths Science Building Phase 1 offices 13 Sol Plaatje Building C008 14 Sol Plaatje Building C007 15 Sol Plaatje Building C003 16 1.5 Comparison of office buildings 17 1.6 Photographic description of standard of design and finishes 18 1.7 Calculation of Base Cost Unit 28 1.8 Assumption of 70% building Efficiency 29 2. EQUITABLE USE OF BASE COST UNIT (BCU) ACROSS ALL UNIVERSITIES 31 2.1 University specific location building cost factor 32 2.2 Coastal versus inland factor 35 2.3 Climate factor 35 2.4 Ground conditions/foundation material 40 2.5 Single versus multi storey buildings 40 3. LAND IMPROVEMENTS OTHER THAN BUILDINGS 41 APPENDIX A: ESTIMATOR FOR BUILDING COST UNIT (BCU) PER UNIVERSITY 42 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Revision of the DHET Base Cost Unit was commissioned by the University of Witwatersrand on behalf of DHET to the following team: Koor Dindar Mothei Quantity Surveyors and Project Managers SBDS Quantity Surveyors Limco Quantity Surveyors Kago Strategic Planners, Project and Programme Managers with assistance and gratitude for input by: CSIR for input and review of Climate factors Medium-Term forecasting Associates (MTFA) for input on Provincial/location specific factors AECOM and B A Hassim QS for providing location specific rates 3 ABBREVIATIONS BCU Building Cost Unit MTFA Medium-Term Forecasting Associates DHET Department of Higher Education and Training GBA Gross Building Area ASM Assignable Square Meters VAT Value Added Tax LIOB Land Improvements other than Buildings BER Bureau for Economic Research MSB Maths Science Building SAPSE-101 South African Post-Secondary Education Report on Nation-wide Space and Cost Norms 1985 PSE Post-Secondary Education AUT Universities and Technicons Advisory Council HEMIS Higher Education Management Information System IT Information Technology CESM Classification of Educational Subject Matter HEQF Higher Education Qualification Framework GCA Gross Construction Area SANS South African National Standards SPU Sol Plaatje University TABS Thermo Active Building Systems UCLA University of California CPAP Contract Price Adjustment provisions BFIC Building Facilities Inventory Classification later renamed Building and Space Inventory and Classification Manual published in April 2009 4 DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING (DHET) UPDATE OF THE BUILDING COST UNIT (BCU) FOR SPACE AND COST NORMS FOR BUILDINGS AND OTHER LAND IMPROVEMENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The latest published values of the Basic Cost Unit of the DHET Space and Cost Norms for Buildings and other land improvements at Higher Education Institutions may no longer reflect the accurate Rand Value of the cost unit for two reasons: 1) The current values represent the compounded escalated value of the 1995 base cost; 2) Changes in use, technology, teaching methods and building standards are not reflected in the Rand value of the cost unit. The fundamental issues of whether the cost unit will enable Universities to erect the desired standard of Infrastructure within a budget based on the cost unit and whether all Universities are equally enabled to do so, needs consideration. The Rand value of the cost unit has been recalculated using the following approach: Elemental cost analyses of four buildings were prepared by the respective project quantity surveyors, based on the latest final or projected costs and quantities available. The following buildings were assessed: Office Buildings: Administration Block (East and West) at the University of Mpumalanga; Mathematical Sciences Building at the University of the Witwatersrand. Teaching Blocks: Multi-Purpose Teaching Building with offices (C003) at Sol Plaatje University. Academic building (C008) at Sol Plaatje University Laboratory: Under Graduate Science Building (C007) at Sol Plaatje University. A basket of common rates applicable to Gauteng in March 2017 were compiled and agreed upon by the project Quantity Surveyors. These rates were then utilised to price the six projects elemental analyses on a common basis. The gross building areas (GBA) of each building were measured in terms of the DHET guidelines and the cost of each building element has been expressed as a cost per m²GBA. The rates for the analysed buildings form the basis of the new Rand value of the cost unit. The BCU differs based on the type of building, i.e. offices, teaching blocks, laboratories, etc. and is derived from the total rate per GBA and efficiency of the building. Gross building area multiplied with efficiency factor provides the Assignable area or m² (ASM). The number of BCU’s for a project is calculated by multiplying the assignable square meters with a factor for the specific type of building. The BCU was confirmed by the analysis with the current factors for a teaching block and laboratory. The BCU of these buildings were aggregated and thereafter converted back to a factor of 1 to enable comparison with the offices. The result is a BCU of R19 957 for March 2017. Escalated to June 2017 the BCU is R20 712.59 The new recommended BCU value for 2017 is R20 500.00 The current method of escalating the June BCU will continue to be applied as instructed by the DHET. The BCU value is inclusive of the following items: Construction cost, professional fees, contingency and 14% VAT. 5 Land improvements other than buildings (LIOB) are not part of the BCU. The BCU published in April 2009 escalated with the published BER indices with the addition of value added tax results in a BCU value of R18 352 for June 2017. The difference between the BCU determined in June 1995 plus tax and the revised BCU determined in March 2017 is R1 605. This difference can be attributed to changes in security, access control, IT and basic Green requirements. The escalation prediction, from MTFA BER from March 2017 to June 2017 of 3.8%, increased the difference substantially to R2 360.12. It must be noted that predicting future building cost is as difficult as predicting the R/$ exchange rate which is why the MTFA BER indices are retrospectively adjusted with data received from the Building Industry. The June data has not been received and as such the June index is an estimation which may be overstated. Predictions for outer years are even more uncertain. For this reason a slightly lower round figure of R20 500 is proposed. It is recommended that a Building Cost Unit (BCU) is calculated for each of the 26 Universities to ensure equity. This can be achieved by applying factors to the Gauteng base cost unit. The location factor for each University is determined by obtaining rates applicable to their location and applying these rates to the calculator developed for this purpose. It is based on the quantities of the Wits MSB building and compares cost to the Gauteng costs (Gauteng cost is factor 1). In addition to the location factors, inland/coastal factors and climate factors are applied to determine University-specific BCU’s. The following table indicates the effect of all factors applicable to each university Adjust ment Location Coastal Climate BCU Factor University Province Factor Factor Factor Value (A) x (A) (B) (C) June 2017 (B) x (C) 1 University of Pretoria Gauteng 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 R 20 500 2 University of the Witwatersrand Gauteng 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 R 20 500 3 University of Johannesburg Gauteng 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 R 20 500 4 University of South Africa Gauteng 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 R 20 500 Tshwane University of 5 Technology Gauteng 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 R 20 500 6 North-West University North West 1.000 1.000 1.030 1.030 R 21 115 Sefako Makgatho Health 7 Science University Gauteng 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 R 20 500 8 University of the Free State Free state 1.069 1.000 1.000 1.069 R 21 915 9 Central University of Technology Free state 1.069 1.000 1.000 1.069 R 21 915 10 University of KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu Natal 1.034 1.010 1.050 1.097 R 22 479 11 University of Zululand KwaZulu Natal 1.119 1.000 1.050 1.175 R 24 086 12 Durban University of Technology KwaZulu Natal 1.034 1.010 1.050 1.097 R 22 479 Mangosuthu University of 13 Technology KwaZulu Natal 1.034 1.010 1.050 1.097 R 22 479 14 University of Mpumalanga Mpumalanga 1.071 1.000 1.050 1.125 R 23 053 15 University of Limpopo Limpopo 1.071 1.000 1.000 1.071 R 21 956 16 Vaal University of Technology Gauteng 1.015 1.000 1.000 1.015 R 20 808 17 Nelson Mandela University Eastern Cape 1.060 1.010 1.000 1.071 R 21 947 18 University of Cape Town Western Cape 1.072 1.010 1.000 1.083 R 22 196 19 Stellenbosch University Western Cape 1.080 1.000 1.050 1.134 R 23 247 20 University of the Western Cape Western Cape 1.072 1.010 1.000 1.083 R 22 196 Cape Peninsula University of 21 Technology Western Cape 1.072 1.010 1.000 1.083 R 22 196 22 Sol Plaatje University Northern Cape 1.107 1.000 1.030 1.140 R 23 374 23 Walter Sisulu University Eastern Cape 1.088 1.010 1.000 1.099 R 22 527 24 University of Fort Hare Eastern Cape 1.114 1.000 1.000 1.114 R 22 837 25 Rhodes University Eastern Cape 1.084 1.000 1.000 1.084 R 22 222 26 University of Venda Limpopo 1.156 1.000 1.050 1.214 R 24 883 6 The determination of Norms is largely dependent on available data.